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Date:      Tue, 23 Jun 2020 11:50:54 +0000
From:      bugzilla-noreply@freebsd.org
To:        bugs@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   [Bug 247498] vd_kbstate not getting reset after keyboard detach/attach?
Message-ID:  <bug-247498-227@https.bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/>

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https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3D247498

            Bug ID: 247498
           Summary: vd_kbstate not getting reset after keyboard
                    detach/attach?
           Product: Base System
           Version: 12.1-RELEASE
          Hardware: Any
                OS: Any
            Status: New
          Severity: Affects Some People
          Priority: ---
         Component: kern
          Assignee: bugs@FreeBSD.org
          Reporter: billblake2018@gmail.com

I have discovered a condition under which pressing a key results in an inpu=
t of
the ESC character followed by the key WITHOUT my holding down any ALT key.=
=20
(See VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK.) This is using the vt driver on 12.1-RELEASE with =
no
relevant changes to the GENERIC kernel config.  The bug is NOT reliably
reproducible.

I discovered the bug while putting together a script to secure my laptop and
power down the screen when I close my laptop's lid.  The script (invoked via
devd), switches to the X console, uses DPMS to turn off my display, disables
the mouse, and detaches the keyboard with "kbdcontrol -A atkbd0".  (Why, you
ask?  Because when using vt, only X can turn off my display, but keyboard
locking is worthless when running X. This was the only way I found to save
power *and* secure my system when the lid is closed.)  When the lid is open=
ed,
a program is called to switch to an unused virtual console, reattach the
keyboard (with the KBADDKB ioctl), and read a password (with console switch=
ing
disabled).

Most of the time, this worked as expected.  Every once in awhile, however, =
the
program would not accept my password.  After some debugging, I discovered t=
hat
the reason was that the kernel was returning my keyboard input with an ESC
character before every character I typed.  Looking around, I found that the=
re
is exactly one place where that could be happening, in sys/dev/vt/vt_core.c,
line 961, and that it would do this only if ALKED is set in vd->vd_kbstate,=
 a
field that *should* only be set while one of my ALT keys is pressed.  I
confirmed that this was the likely culprit by pressing my left ALT key while
the bug manifested--the kernel immediately stopped adding the ESC character=
s.

I no longer have the kernel knowledge (or the time) track this bug to its l=
air,
but it seems fairly obvious that vd_kbstate is not getting properly initial=
ized
when the keyboard is reattached.  This is relatively harmless; that field
controls only the one thing, and the problem is remedied by merely hitting =
an
ALT key.  Of greater concern is the possibility that some *other* field is =
not
getting reinitialized after a keyboard detach/attach sequence, which sugges=
ts
that a review of the keyboard attach code is in order.

--=20
You are receiving this mail because:
You are the assignee for the bug.=



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